terrier engineer

I've been feeling cossetted this week as BT has showered me with phone line engineers - one a day for 3 days - to cure the intermittent broadband fault.

Were they running an internal challenge to see (a) how long they could string the customer along without actually solving anything or (b) which of them could crack the mysterious broadband fault first? [Thank you Tom Allen, for the insights in your 23 December comment on getting broadband faults sorted.]

The Wednesday engineer did a thorough check on the internal line and connections and all checked out ok. He said I'd get a call to arrange another engineer visit to investigate underground (UG).

The Thursday engineer checked over what had been done and headed off to check the line between here and the exchange. Then he said it needed a UG engineer and a broadband engineer to work in tandem by isolating and testing sections of the line to find the fault, and I'd get a call to arrange the visit.

The Friday engineer went over with me all the checks, information and comments so far and was clearly frustrated by not being able to spot the solution. After 2 weeks of getting nowhere his attitude offered a glimmer of hope. He went off to see if he could do anything at the exchange ... he really didn't want this to go unsolved ...

Like everyone else in Beka's life, her partners find out that once Beka gets a case in her teeth, she hangs onto it like a terrier until it's been solved. [from Terrier by Beka Cooper]

Sometime later he called to say he'd altered something at the exchange - did I have broadband now? Well something had happened; the broadband light was coming on, but wasn't constant. The Friday engineer sound encouraged.

A few minutes later, after I'd left for my friends' house, a voicemail was left (in Tom Baker's voice) announcing that the fault had been repaired. And it has - inside two weeks!

Well done terrier engineer.